


Of Mice and Men

by oviparous



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Crack, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 09:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10828767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oviparous/pseuds/oviparous
Summary: When a personal emergency sees bakery-owner Ohno being with his mother at the hospital, the responsibility of dealing with the annual health inspection falls upon the shoulders of Jun, his cousin and stand-in proprietor. Everything seems to be going okay, even with chatty regular customer Aiba and his drunken neighbour Sho at the counter, until Nino the baking goods vendor finds a mouse nest in a corner of the shop. Aiba, who loves the bakery to the moon and back, takes it upon himself to ensure Ohno's labour of love gets a good rating from the Environmental and Hygiene Board - except all hell breaks loose when Sho trips over a water pipe.





	Of Mice and Men

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2009, posted [here](http://oviparousfic.livejournal.com/25791.html). Resurrection of [that bakery fic](http://community.livejournal.com/oviparousfic/22619.html#cutid1) featuring Ohno and Aiba, which someone prompted [here](http://community.livejournal.com/appleclementine/6611.html?thread=212691#t212691) and I did anonymously. Set about one year after that episode.

Nino heaved the sack of flour from the back of the van before rapping his knuckles on the back entrance of the little establishment that was Ohno’s bakery.

“Oh-chan! I’m here!” Nino called, and soon someone came to answer the door.

Nino scowled when he saw it was Jun. (It was customary.)

“Oh, Nino-chan,” Ohno’s cousin simpered, opening the door wide on its hinges to let Nino enter. Nino rolled his eyes and moved past the doorsill.

“‘Nino’ would do just fine,” the deliveryman answered, scoffing. Jun just laughed and returned to the table to put on his plastic gloves. He then busied himself by injecting the coronets with custard. Nino put the flour onto the stainless steel worktop before turning to Jun. “Why are you here on a weekday? Where’s Oh-chan?”

“Satoshi-nii isn’t at home,” Jun paused what he was doing and looked at Nino. “Oba-chan got warded in hospital last night, she broke her ankle. Satoshi-nii has been with her since. I took a day off work to help out.”

Nino blinked. “Isn’t today the day for health inspection?”

“That’s why I’m here.” Jun shrugged. “He said he’ll be back by three. I reminded him that you’re coming today as well, and he said he has to go to the bank to deposit the cash or something, so you’ve got to hang around a bit, unless you want him to defer the payment.” Jun looked at the clock on the wall. “You’ve got an hour to spare?”

Nino considered this for a moment. “Yeah. I’ll just tell my dad I’ll be back a little later.” Nino took out his phone and punched in his father’s number. It was kind of sad that the son of the largest baking goods supplier in Tsukuba was also the delivery person. It wasn’t as if they were hard-pressed to cut costs – they could perfectly afford to hire someone for the job, but no, Ninomiyas just do things themselves.

The chimes on the front door clanged merrily, signalling for Jun to exit the backroom. Jun looked at Nino pointedly as he removed his gloves.

“Uh, I won’t eat anything?” Nino promised, wondering if that was what Jun was asking.

“The last time you tampered with the custard we couldn’t make coronets for a week,” Jun exhaled heavily, left his stool, and went to attend to the customer at the counter.

“Aw, you guys just can’t take jokes!” Nino raised his volume a little so Jun could hear him, but Jun made no move to reply.

*

“Oh-chan!” Aiba hollered from his place at the register, clutching the pre-packed bag of bread. His eyes flew to the fridge, locating the digital clock with the magnetised back, making sure he wasn’t late. Aiba had to catch the train back to Chiba in an hour and he wanted some cheese croissants for the ride.

When Jun emerged, Aiba was more than surprised. “Jun-kun? Where is Oh-chan?”

Jun could hear the puzzlement in Aiba’s voice. “His mother is in hospital for a broken ankle,” Jun explained, taking the croissants and ringing it up at the till. “But he’ll be back soon,” Jun assured, placing the bread into a paper bag for Aiba to carry.

Aiba’s face fell. “I wanted to say goodbye to him before I head home for the week.”

“Where’s your hometown?” Jun quizzed in surprise, not knowing that the university student wasn’t from the area.

“Just Chiba,” Aiba confessed sheepishly, and Jun laughed.

“It’s just next door!” Jun pointed out, teasing.

“ _Two. Hours. Away_ ,” Aiba maintained, dragging the carrier off the counter. “Plus a bus ride from the station.”

“I’ll tell Satoshi-nii that his Greatest Fan said hi,” Jun answered dryly.  
  
Aiba made a face to retort. "I'm not his 'Greatest Fan'," he denied unconvincingly.

The chimes sounded against the glass as another person pushed the wooden-framed door past its threshold and stumbled into the place. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a loose tie, and Aiba raised a hand to greet him. Sho’s vision look a little unfocused, and he smelt really _drunk_.

“Aiba-chan, I knew you were here!” Sho wagged an unsteady finger at his friend. He then examined the four walls. “There is a _lot of bread_ ,” Sho stated observantly, starting a round of unhurried applause.

“Good afternoon, Sho-chan. Welcome to the bakery I have been telling you about!” Aiba grinned. “He’s my neighbour,” Aiba furnished Jun with information about the newcomer. “Just moved in a couple days ago. Gonna take care of my fish while I’m gone too. Good guy.”

“Argh,” Sho uttered, shifting onto one of the barstools. “I need a beer.”

Jun narrowed his eyes at Aiba in question of the person’s character. “I’m sorry, but we only have coffee. Colombian brew.”

“That would do,” Sho said as he plunged his face into his palms. Jun stared at him for awhile before turning away to make the coffee.

“You okay, Sho-chan?” Aiba asked, disconcerted. He moved to sit beside Sho at the counter. “Have you been drinking?”

“I didn’t get the job,” Sho said flatly, and Aiba held out his arms to give Sho an embrace, which Sho gratefully fell into. “I worked so hard for it and yet…!” Sho near-wailed, nuzzling into the nook of Aiba’s neck before managing a sorry laugh.

“Sorry to interrupt your apparent display of affection,” Jun motioned, “but I need to get the coffee beans. You’d be here for awhile, wouldn’t you Aiba-chan?” Jun glanced to Sho before showing Aiba markedly-raised eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Aiba replied, arms full of inebriated Sho, and he threw yet another glance at the little clock on the fridge.

*

“Jun, come look at this,” Nino beckoned from his squatting stance on the floor, his face looking grim.

“What?” Jun put down the almost-empty coffee bean jar on the worktop and crouched to join Nino.

“Isn’t this a mouse nest?” Nino pointed to the sac-like thing resting in the space formed by the wall and the supplies cabinet. It was no bigger than a grapefruit, and was made of some kind of discarded fabric, possibly mattress lining.

Jun squinted at the thing, and Nino opened the back door wider so he was supplied with more light to view the object.

“Yeah, it’s a mouse nest. It’s empty though,” Jun observed, poking it a little. He looked to the bottom of the door. “Gnaw marks,” he traced his finger over the edge.

“Is that a mouse nest?” a third voice echoed, and standing at the doorway was Sho, grinning like a village idiot.

“Sho-chan!” Aiba caught up to his neighbour. “Customers aren’t supposed to come here,” Aiba hissed, dragging Sho away.

“You were the one who said… I should take a _walk_ ,” Sho argued with slurred speech.

“Not to the back,” Aiba scolded, pulling on Sho’s hand.

“They found a mouse nest!” Sho protested, ripping his hand away from Aiba’s and pointing to Jun and Nino, stamping his feet a little.

Aiba gave the other two a horrified look. “On the day of the _health inspection_?”

“Yeah,” Nino responded in a monotone.

“Have you guys found the mouse?” Aiba whispered in fear.

“Nope,” Jun sighed, dusting his hands. “It’s probably running around somewhere.”

“Mice are nocturnal,” Sho mentioned knowledgeably, and Aiba was impressed because Sho was obviously still on Cloud Alcohol. “The nest is probably abandoned,” Sho giggled.

“Better to be safe than sorry,” Aiba said with resolve, his expression hardening and his train forgotten. “We have two hours.”

*

Aiba flipped the sign at the door to ‘Closed’, rattling off instructions as he returned to the barstool. “–and I will be in charge of Sector 5. Jun will have to search all the upper floors–”

“There is only one upper floor,” Jun reminded Aiba in a strangled voice.

The university student whinnied impatiently and glared at Jun. “I repeat, Jun will have to search all the upper floors. Please take note of Grid 9F, where there is a stockpile of paper bags–”

“Sorry to interrupt you once more, but is this _really_ necessary?” Nino voiced, propping his arm on the cash register and pointing to the blueprint of the stout two-storey building that Ohno owned.

“I think the question is: why do you even have the floor plan?” Jun frowned, indicating the document sprawled on the front counter.

“Did you _draw_ the gridlines _yourself_?” Sho peered intently at the paper, chuckling to himself, his cheeks still ruddy from intoxication.

“You guys, focus!” Aiba chided with annoyance. “This is important. The health people are coming at four, we haven’t got much time!”

“Okay, okay,” grumbled Jun. “So I’m going to go upstairs, Nino will take care of the chocolate room, Aiba-chan will look around here and Sakurai-san will look in the garbage or something. Outside.”

“Why do I get the dirty job?” Sho moaned as he removed his tie, fanning himself.

“Because you’re drunk and you’d screw up indoors,” Nino answered in an offended tone, lowering his eyelids and pointing to the coffee bean jar, which lay in pieces on the floor.

“Plus we don’t know you very well,” Jun sniffed. “Aiba-chan’s been a regular customer for a year and I’ve been helping out on weekends since this place opened. And Nino’s been servicing the bakery for about the same length of time so yeah, you don’t really get to choose. You’ve just been here for half an hour.”

Sho slumped dejectedly against the front room sink, successfully rattling a couple of saucepans before springing up too fast in fright, his head hitting the shelves above. As a tin of cocoa powder fell, bouncing off his head and bursting open on the tiles beneath their feet, Sho just stared at the other three men and smiled widely. “It doesn’t hurt at all,” he declared, drawing in a breath of laughter with a rambunctious snort.

“He’s worse than you,” Nino whispered to Aiba, and Aiba jabbed Nino viciously in the side.

*

Drinking was never a habit of Sho’s. He just did it when he was depressed.

Which was most of the time since he lost his previous job.

Along with the job he’d lost the car, the fancy apartment and the girlfriend. But with the loss he’d gained an invasive neighbour who was obsessed with the bakery next door and somewhat taken with its owner.

He wasn’t sure what he could make of that, but he enjoyed the conversation with the men, no matter how short their interaction had been in the past hour. It took him away from his sad, pathetic life.

He liked them all already. Even the one called Ohno. (If it was anything to go by, his bakery exuded an aura that made Sho _fall in love_.)

“Are you _here_?” Sho hollered into a garbage can. Blanching and retching at the smell, which almost sobered him, he quickly covered it again, and moved to the concrete wall that made up the side of the bakery. He duck-walked for half the length and started crawling when he spotted a weed, before deciding to follow its gradient, making whooshing sounds as he did so.

“Look for them properly, Sakurai-san!” Jun shouted from an upstairs window, and Sho squinted at the man in disdain, shielding his eyes from the sunlight that was beaming from above.

“I _am_ looking for them properly,” Sho muttered, not loud enough for Jun to hear, and he trudged past two corners to the other side of the standalone establishment.

“Here, micey micey mice,” Sho cooed as he walked, bending forwards to speak closer to the ground. “Hmm,” he mused as he maintained his awkward gait, “I should bait them with cheese!”

Just as he said this he tripped severely over something and fell flat onto the ground, grazing his cheek on the gravel.

“Ow,” he groaned. “Now this one hurts.”

There was a shriek that was identifiably produced by Aiba mere seconds later, followed by the sound of a door being thrown open. There was another screech before Nino’s cursing.

“WHAT THE _HELL_ DID SAKURAI DO?!” Jun yelled as he thundered down the stairs, and just beside Sho, the PVC pipe that obstructed his journey finally exploded, sending a magnificent spurt of water ten feet into the air.

“Crap,” Sho wheezed.

*

Aiba had finished sweeping the glass and scattered coffee beans from the floor and disposed of them in the bin. He peered at the depths of the receptacle and decided it was too high for any mouse to climb.

Grabbing a supermarket plastic bag, Aiba headed for the spot where the mouse nest was. It was concrete evidence capable of jeopardising the bakery’s hygiene rating, and Aiba didn’t want that, for his love for chocolate éclairs and for Ohno.

The bakery was important to Aiba. For the past year that he’d been living in the neighbourhood, the bakery summed up everything he valued in life: food, friendship and family. Amidst the stresses of school, foul garbage trucks, part-time jobs and odd downstairs neighbours, Ohno and the bakery were his constants. There were croissants on Mondays and danishes on Tuesdays and no cakes on Sundays, because Sunday was Home Delivery Day, and the cakes would _always_ sell out.

The bakery had a charm that could only be in effect thanks to Ohno’s presence, a quiet, understated sort of charisma no one but Ohno could give, and nothing but the bakery could emanate.

And that was important to Aiba.

Readying his hand with the bag, he bent to scoop the nest into it and secured the mouth of the carrier with a dead knot. He then straightened, satisfied with the completed task.

Aiba yelped in pain as something cold hit his back, and he spun to realise it was the _tap_. He blubbered as he ran forward to meet the gush of water, holding up his hands against the outflow. “Nino, help me!” he screamed, unable to handle the onslaught on his own.

*

The chocolate room was always cold. Nino wasn’t a big fan of that, but he wasn’t always in the chocolate room anyway. He preferred to stick around in the backroom or the storeroom upstairs; assisting with the inventory he had helped to create. Jun wasn’t always around because he had a real job at the library, whereas Nino came as often as twice a week.

Ohno appreciated Nino’s help, because he had to man the kitchen and the orders and the cash register. Jun had been trying to convince his eldest cousin that the three barstools by the display fridge would only make Ohno busier and he should remove them, but Ohno refused, saying that he liked people to stick around. When Nino heard that, he pretty much wanted to stick around for life.

Odd, but true.

Prior to his acquaintance with Ohno, Nino had always felt something was wrong with his life. He was too content. There must have been a mistake. Lives were supposed to be tumultuous adventures and here he was in sleepy, suburban Tsukuba, living a happy-go-lucky one, and that certainly was wrong.

It was only when he met Ohno that he made the first big blunder of his existence.

Ohno had requested for 100 kilograms of a grade of sugar not common in their area. Nino had placed the order with the overseas manufacturer, because their company did not carry that particular type.

When Nino arrived with the sugar, Ohno pointed out that it was of a different grade, and he would not be able to use it. Nino, determined to set things right despite Ohno’s insistence that it was okay, headed out to all the sugar suppliers in Tsukuba, begging for trade for the 100 kilograms of the wrong type of sugar, or part thereof.

He could only obtain about half the original weight that Ohno required, but it had also won him a relationship with Ohno that no amount of sugar could buy.

Nino finished surveying the cupboard that stood at the side of the undersized area, which was actually just adjacent to the backroom of the bakery. He walked to the marble worktop and supported himself with his knees before sliding apart the doors of the shelf underneath which hid the ingredients for chocolate. He poked his head into the storage but couldn’t see anything without a flashlight, and gingerly levelled himself out of the space.

Debating within himself on whether to get a flashlight or not, Nino had hardly begun to arrive at a conclusion when he heard Aiba’s yell from the other side of the door. He pushed down the lever and flung the door open only to see Aiba being attacked by water from the broken sink.  
  
It was raining _indoors._

“Nino, help me!” Aiba shouted, and Nino was snapped out of his mouth-gaping.

“Shit, shit, _shit_!” Nino swore in reaction, and as water fell into his eyes, he dropped on all fours to search for the mains switch.

*

The bakery was originally a decent-sized house. Ohno had the contractors remove all the walls on both floors, keep some foundational beams, and convert the abode into the establishment as it was known in the neighbourhood.

There was something about his cousin’s bakery that made Jun fall in love. With what, he wasn’t too sure. He loved the way the bread baskets were arranged, he loved the novelty of Ohno’s creations, he loved the warm colours on the walls – he loved everything. That was why he decided to help out in the first place. Of course, it wasn’t as if it was a _chore_ to help out, no, not at all – his mother was really supportive because Jun was going to help her brother’s son, and that was just the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

There was something about Ohno that made everyone fall in love, and the bakery was just a medium. It was for people to fall in love with Ohno via an edible proxy, Jun decided.

Jun switched on the light of the storeroom. It was dimly lit and kept cool for practical and functional purposes. Jun decided to open one of the windows for ventilation, because he foresaw that he’d be around for quite some time if he had to go through all the shelves of utensils and recipe books and whatnot.

As he pushed the windowpanes away from him he spotted Sho at the side of the bakery, fooling around with something at the base of the wall. Sho was also making odd sounds, and Jun couldn’t resist chastising the older man from his vantage point.

“Look for them properly, Sakurai-san!” he hollered, arranging his brows into a solemn frown immediately after to tell Sho he was being serious.

Sho just ambled away from sight in his drunken state, and Jun wondered if Sho was an asset to this mission at all.

Leaving the window, Jun headed for the boxes of paper bags that Aiba had mentioned during the mini military briefing. He removed the first two so he could shift the ones underneath. After doing so he scanned the area behind the boxes which were moved. There weren’t any more nests, and Jun breathed a little easier. He then turned the box at the bottom towards himself, hoping that he wouldn’t see any holes or gnaw marks.

“Looks fine,” he murmured, and he was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard a yelp from downstairs that sounded like Aiba when he burnt his tongue on Saturday morning coffee.

Jun rushed to the landing as he heard Aiba cry to Nino for help, and as he tramped down the stairs he heard Nino yelling as well.

As he closed onto the first level he was met with the sight of water spurting almost _everywhere_ and probably ruining the flour and it _must have been Sakurai’s fault,_ so as he jumped off the last few steps, Jun bellowed, “WHAT THE _HELL_ DID SAKURAI DO?!”

Aiba wailed in despair, and suddenly the water stopped its merciless outpour.

The spout lay dead on the floor, and all three men were silent from the sudden change of events.

Nino blinked as he stood up, not needing to locate the mains switch anymore.

“What happened?” Jun asked, his voice sounding suffocated. “Where is Sakurai?!”

*

Sho was still lying at the side of the bakery as chaos was most certainly taking place within. He got up very slowly, dusting down the front of his soaked pants for no particular reason. Hearing what was going on was enough to give him a rough idea what the ruckus inside was about, plus the copious amount of water that was giving him a public shower was too big a clue to ignore. Drunk though he was, Sho was smart, and inebriation never got in the way of wisdom.

No, it never did.

“Excuse me,” a stuffy-sounding voice called out to Sho, and he spun on his heel to locate the source of the sound, his arms flapping lifelessly by his side.

Two men in suits were looking at Sho bewilderedly, and they were also trying to make sense of the broken pipe and the water it was sending into the air. The façade of the bakery offered them no clue, and Sho burped beer-gas as he approached the staid duo.

“Yeah?” Sho almost interrogated, not knowing who these people were.

(So much for wisdom.)

“We’re a little early, but… I’m Miyagi from the Environmental and Hygiene Board,” the man on the right showed Sho his pass, and so did the man on the left. Sho could barely keep up with the motion. “We are here to evaluate a certain…” the man paused to obtain a clipboard from his colleague, “… Ohno Satoshi?”

They were interrupted by three rather angry men, two of whom were completely drenched (not unlike Sho himself), and another, who was mildly splashed on the sleeve of his shirt.

“Look at that!” Jun did his best to stop screaming, and thrust a finger towards the upward blast of water a few feet away. “What did you frickin’ do?!” Jun accused, lunging towards Sho, and Aiba and Nino had to keep him from hitting the unemployed drunkard.

Sho just held Jun’s gaze serenely and gestured courteously to the two officials, who were getting more and more suspicious by the minute. “Have you not witnessed the arrival of our guests?” Sho wondered aloud at Jun in a rather strange inflection. “Why have you allowed them to witness our pitiable domestic battle?”

Jun finally noticed the presence of the suited men and it clicked.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Jun managed to say, embarrassed at his lack of demeanour just moments before.

“Welcome,” Sho put his hands together and bowed to the health inspectors. “What you have seen,” Sho fanned out his palm ceremoniously and swept it towards the burst pipe, “is the annual Cleansing Ritual of the Leavening Clan.”

“Oh, shit,” Nino said in a hoarse whisper, exchanging looks of horror with Aiba.

“He’s dru–” Aiba was about to say, but Jun stopped him.

“Yes,” Jun smiled genially at Sho, and let his palms meet as well. “I am the Benevolent Matsumoto and this is the Esteemed Sakurai,” Jun gave a deep bow to the officials. “Along with the two individuals behind us, we are followers of the Eminent One, whose Sacred Yeasty Name we cannot speak of. He has yet to return to his chambers, so if you please, I recommend that you wait.”

“They’re mad,” Aiba clutched Nino's soaked sleeve in fear, choking back a sob.

“A-Are you guys a _cult_?” the inspector on the left, obviously a greenhorn, looked absolutely terrified as he cowered behind his supervisor, who looked disinterested, probably having seen stuff like that on the job too many times to worry.

Nino cleared his throat. “Please, do not speak of us in this fashion,” he enunciated, and bowed in similar manner.

Aiba’s jaw almost hit the ground, and he moaned softly in terror.

“We’re just looking for Ohno Satoshi,” the more experienced inspector deadpanned.

Jun, Sho and Nino grimaced at the mention of Ohno’s name.

Aiba just stood there and searched his mind for something.

There was nothing.

“My head hurts to a great extent, Wise Ninomiya,” Jun confessed solemnly.

“Yes, I am aware of that. It must be the mention of the Sacred Yeasty Name,” Nino cleverly deduced.

“Shall we come back another day?” the trembling younger official proposed to his senior, who hesitated a little this time.

“We have to remedy our pain with the Legendary Sodium Bicarbonate Positions,” Sho chanted. “Swan!” he raised his right arm, bending his elbow and snapping his wrist so the silhouette formed one similar to said bird.

Jun spun once and posed, hooking his fingers inwards at the joints of his knuckles. “Snake,” he hissed, and Nino had to bend over in pretence of his headache to hide his laughter.

“Aiba!” Nino whispered fiercely, swatting Aiba’s leg to get him to do something, unable to recover on time for his own stance.

“Um… Kangaroo!” Aiba hopped once and positioned his limp wrists somewhere around his abdomen, thinking how bad the situation was.

“…Armadillo,” Nino managed to choke, successfully disguising his laughter as he curled up in a ball as best as he could, balancing on his haunches.

“Tell Ohno Satoshi we dropped by,” the brave official tried once more as his flung a piece of paper towards Jun, and this time, all four of them twitched before declaring their animals.

*

Ohno touched the tip of his nose a couple of times, not really getting Jun’s explanation as to why there were plumbers moving around the first floor of his business.

“There was a mouse nest,” Ohno repeated, leaning against the counter and directing the clarification to his cousin. “And that’s why there are people repairing the sink?”

“No,” Nino interfered from the other side of the register, perching on one of the barstools. “Okay, actually yes, but lots of things happened in the middle. We were looking for the mouse that inhabited the nest. It wasn’t there when we found it.”

“I _told_ you guys it was an abandoned nest,” Sho spoke up, sipping his long-awaited coffee. Sho was nothing but a picture of sobriety, and it was later revealed that he’d pretty much woken up when he realised the guys in suits were from the health board.

“Yes, but it pays to be really sure about these things, you know?” Aiba disputed from his place between Nino and Sho.

Jun leant against the cool metal wall of the oven. “We tried to check the place for mice so we could get rid of them before the health inspectors came. Before things got underway, Sakurai here tripped over the water mains pipe and bent it. The sink in the backroom couldn’t take the pressure, burst open and wet the whole kitchen. It only stopped when the mains pipe broke and the water line got disconnected from the sink.”

Ohno pondered this for a moment. “And the mains pipe broke because?”

“Pressure from the water source,” Aiba supplied. “You may want to consider using metal for the replacement pipe. Your PVC adventures are over, Oh-chan.”

“And the health inspectors? Why did they decide to come on another day?” Ohno questioned, tapping the document from the Board, which was stuck onto the fridge with the clock.

Sho bent his head, looking into his coffee. Jun blew a lock of hair away from his eyes. Nino shifted uncomfortably and averted his vision to the fruit-topped shortcake inside the display fridge.

“They had to go eat, uh, meat,” Aiba offered lamely. “They were really hungry.”

"Oh?" Ohno was curious. “What meat did they want to eat?”

Nino turned to look at the others for a moment before facing Ohno. “Armadillo,” he said decidedly, a grin conquering his face, and it didn’t take long for Aiba, Jun and Sho to crack up.


End file.
